Legal Analyst Skeptical of Acosta Lawsuit

When it comes to First Amendment cases, it's frankly not all that common to see a major news outlet sue the president.

"This is very rare and quite unusual so I don't think any prior case is going to dictate the result," Attorney James Ostrowski said.

In general, few attorneys in Buffalo, New York have more experience with First and Second Amendment suits than Ostrowski.

"I normally represent the plaintiffs in these matters, the people alleging their rights have been violated but on this one I am a little skeptical of the lawsuit," he said.

CNN and reporter Jim Acosta claim the Trump administration violated Acosta's rights by revoking his press pass to the White House. It came after a particularly testy exchange between the president and the veteran correspondent last week.

"When I review the video, I counted President Trump saying 'that's enough' seven times before he got the mic back, so I think that's a problem for the plaintiff," Ostrowski said.

He said the administration will likely argue Trump was not attempting to suppress speech but rather give other reporters a fair chance to ask questions. Ostrowski also believes Trump's attorneys will freely admit he is a vocal critic of CNN, but said it could actually help the president's argument.

"Trump is hostile to a lot of reporters. In fact, he was hostile to some reporters at [that] event, but they didn't have their passes revoked," he said.

"However, I note that the press pass was suspended," he said. "It doesn't seem like a permanent revocation so, if there's a particular deadline for a hearing I don't know what that is but they might still give him a hearing of some kind."

Ultimately, the attorney doesn't believe the case will have a wide impact because of the very specific circumstances connected to it.